It's About the Place

We are into dirt here. Not sure why; maybe for me it was the mud pie making as a kid, maybe it was seeing strangers walk up to our secluded yard to admire my mother's flower garden because they heard about it from someone else or maybe it was the time I spent on my grandparents’ farm with the cows, chickens, timothy hay and creek to play in. In all likelihood, the fact that both Rick and my grandparents on both sides were farmers probably has a lot to do with it. Rick himself was raised on and drove combine on the Woodward Canyon farm where our Estate Vineyard now grows. One of my favorite cinematographic moments is in “Gone with the Wind” when Scarlet holds up a handful of her beloved Tara to the heavens and essentially declares "Bring it on, I have my dirt!"

The dirt here is unique. That was one factor in the government's approval of our Walla Walla Valley appellation. Not only is there the wine appellation, but there is also an officially designated growing area for Walla Walla Sweet Onions – Walla Walla Sweets grown elsewhere are not Walla Walla Sweets. There is a taste of place here.

In addition to our dirt, we love the Walla Walla Valley. It too is unique and has a sense of place. Walla Walla is an authentic small town with character and history. It and the wine industry have developed organically over time - not part of some master plan or by trying to imitate Tuscany or Bordeaux.

Those places have developed the same way over time. That is what the "romance of the vineyards" is all about. It is more than the wine; it is about the landscape, the people and their culture. People make pilgrimages to wine country to drink the wine, eat the food and soak in the atmosphere. Bordeaux is not Burgundy and Napa is not Paso. This is what makes wine different from other agricultural products. How many people have ever collared you at a dinner party and told you of their amazing trip to Kansas where they ate this fabulous corn and how different that corn is from the corn they recently sampled in Pasco, Washington? My guess is not many.

So, where the heck am I going with this you ask? We recently have been receiving offers to open a tasting room in the Puget Sound –which is another appellation. In fact, during Spring Release a very nice woman asked me if she could get a brochure about a "wine village" being built there out of her car for me and informed me that a number of other Eastern Washington wineries were interested. I did not say it, but the first thing that came to my mind was my mother repeating the old adage that "you don't have to jump off the bridge just because everyone else is". I just began shaking my head "no".

I told her that we are a Walla Walla winery and while not all of our fruit is grown here, we grow an increasing proportion and we produce all of it here. We are defined by being a Walla Walla winery. We are not here just to use the name; we are a part of the fabric of the Valley and it of us. The Bordelaise do not have tasting rooms in Alsace or Champagne – they are Bordelaise. Stag's Leap wineries do not have tasting rooms in Carneros – they are not of Carneros. We don't want to become a mere storefront, minus the romance and essence of wine country. I politely declined the nice lady's offer.

It all comes down to the fact that this is our "place". We are a Walla Walla winery and we are damn proud of it.

Darcey / Woodward Canyon

A windy day at Woodward Canyon Estate Vineyard!

I just got back to my desk after checking the vineyard and the wind is blowing as I hard as I can ever remember. And I’ve lived here all my life! While spring is a fabulous time to be in the vineyard, with new shoot growth of green and pink, it is also the time of year when the wind can blow incessantly, especially after rain. It once again reminds me how appreciative I am of our vineyard crew and how hard they work even on days such as this.

Well, the vines are truly growing now and I believe that we will probably have our first application of organic sulfur (mildew prevention) on by the third week in May. It is also going to be a year where a great deal of hand work will need to take place. In fact we will probably start this process tomorrow if the weather is better. Shoot positioning, leaf stripping, lateral removal and finally cluster thinning is all part of the seasonal process leading to perfect physiological vine and grape maturity. The flavor of grapes grown this way is superb; complex, purity of fruit and with vine age, minerals. One bottle of wine per vine is our reward and yours.

Here’s to a great 2009 vintage!

Rick

The Woody Team Rocks!

We always knew that the Woody crew rocked but let me tell you, they really ROCK!
Getting ready for and executing any event like Spring Release Weekend always takes coordination and a lot of work, but this year we also had a new building (our Reserve House - pictured above) to get open for the tasting and then the following Wednesday we hosted the Washington Wine Commission's export tour – 8 members of the foreign trade for lunch and then a tasting for 60 with 15 other wineries present.

The week of Spring Release we were pretty ready for the usual tasting, but due to the finishing of the floors we could not get into the new building until Tuesday – meaning no furniture was in place, appliances were still being installed and the building was very dusty.

Zero landscaping was in place too. Monday, Kiko and Manuel from the cellar and I hauled and spread gravel for the new garden and Jorge and Hermenegildo from the vineyard laid the gravel paths and prepped for the sod.

Tuesday morning dawned and it was raining cats and dogs, so absolutely nothing was accomplished in terms of moving into the building or installing the landscaping. Things were getting a little tense since the clock was ticking.

On Wednesday and Thursday it was all hands on deck! The cellar crew and vineyard guys laid sod like pros, moved plants from their temporary homes, mowed, trimmed, weeded and then got the tank room ready to great visitors on Friday. Rafa, our Cellar Master and Kevin took on preparing for bottling as well as moving furniture and doing whatever else was asked. Kellie, Tasting Room Manager, deadheaded daffodils all morning and then started in on cleaning the new building. Thomas, National Sales, helped assemble shelving, packed stuff around and stocked the buildings with wine for the weekend. Shari, Guest Services, cut cheese for hours, readied glasses and helped organize the new building as well. Marlene, Marketing/Web, held down the tasting room and handled the organization of the weekend while the rest of us ran in 50 different directions. Sue and Lori in Accounting/Compliance answered phones and Sue planted our barrel planters.

Friday morning, we were ready and open for tasting in both buildings; plants and lawn were in place and art was hanging in the new building!

Then we all poured wine for 3 days. Except for Kevin who poured wine for 2 days, flew to Chicago on Sunday, did a trade tasting Monday and flew back on Tuesday to finish preparing for bottling. Bob and Kelsey joined us on the weekend to haul and wash glasses and to pack up sold wine.

This Monday, the guys broke down the tasting tables and they and Tasting Room ladies got everything cleaned and put away. Sue crunched numbers for the weekend and Kevin resumed getting ready for bottling. On Wednesday, the tables went back up, glasses were set out and Thomas and the Tasting Room staff shopped for, prepped, and made wood-fired pizza lunch for 8 foreign trade members and our staff. More clean up, and then preparation for a tasting for 60, followed by working the tasting and more clean up.

WHEW! These guys are "awesome" to use Kellie's favorite word. They work their tails off, are willing to do a whole lot of things outside of their job descriptions and are fun to be around. Rick and I are lucky, lucky dogs – thanks everyone!

-Darcey

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Whew! This is going to be just a quick update. It was a crazy busy weekend for Spring Release and then with the WSWE (Washington State Wine Experience) buyers here last night. And with Balloon Stampede here this weekend I can already tell that it’s going to be a crazy summer. But I just love when it starts to get busy around here. Makes things move that much quicker.

We all made it through Spring Release this year. We had some awesome customers come through, like always, both new and old. It is always fun to see new faces mixed in with some of our longtime friends. We did our normal tasting in our production building, where we were pouring our 2007 Dry White Riesling, 2007 Estate Barbera, Non-Vintage Red Wine, 2007 Walla Walla Valley Cabernet, 2006 Columbia Valley Merlot, 2006 “Artist Series” Cabernet and our new release the 2006 Estate Red Wine. What a fun line-up of wines. We also held our first event in our brand new Reserve House, where we poured the 2006 “Old Vines” Cabernet and the 2002 “Old Vines” Cabernet from a magnum as a bonus. We were so excited to get in there after all this time. The building is going to be a great addition to the Woody grounds.

Right after Spring Release we got to turn around and get things ready for the WSWE, which we hosted here yesterday afternoon. There were 16 different Walla Walla Valley Wineries pouring and around 60 buyers. Talk about a crazy event. I met Rick at the WWCC Enology and Viticulture Center at noon and we brought 8 of the buyers out to Woodward for wood-fire pizza lunch after a quick trip through the Estate Vineyard. Then it was off to Walla Walla Wine Works for their next session before all 60 buyers were back here to taste with the 16 WW Valley Wineries. Due to Mother Nature not cooperating with us, we had to do the event in our production building. We had more wine flowing than I’ve seen in a really long time. It was crazy. It reminded me of a swarm of bees at the speed everyone went through and tasted everything. Then it was off to L’Ecole #41 for a bbq dinner.

This weekend brings us the Walla Walla Balloon Stampede. We’ll have balloon enthusiasts coming to the valley as early as today to start taking trial runs and getting ready. As a local in this valley I’ve always enjoyed this weekend. I remember as a kid getting up early in the morning to see if I could spot any balloons in the sky. Though, if the weather stays like it is today, I’m not sure if we’ll see any this weekend. With the wind blowing like it is, who knows where the balloons would land if they ever got up.

For those of you in Seattle, check out Daniel’s Broiler this month. They are showcasing Washington wines and one of their features is Woodward Canyon! Also, if you’re in the Coeur D’Alene area, Rick and Darcey will be doing a winemaker’s dinner at Beverly’s the Coeur D’Alene Resort on May 17th. Call Beverly at 208-765-4000 directly for more information. And here’s a sneak peak of the menu if anyone is interested. Looks like they are pairing some great food with some older vintages of Woodward Canyon wines, which we're sold out of here at the winery.

Amuse Bouche: Tuna Nicoise – 2007 Estate Sauvignon Blanc
Salad: Tropic Salad – 2006 Washington State Chardonnay
Appetizer: Smoked Copper River Salmon Carpaccio – 2006 Columbia Valley Merlot
Intermezzo: Washington Apple Granite’
Entrée: Veal Osso Buco, Seared Yellow Fin Tuna and Roasted Squab with Smoked Tomato Compote – 2004 “Old Vines” Cabernet, 2001 “Artist Series” Cabernet and 2005 “Artist Series” Cabernet
Cheese: A trio of the world’s fine cheeses – 2003 Charbonneau Red
Kiss Goodnight: Chocolate Chipotle Cupcake

See you all in the tasting room!

Ciao,

Shari / Woodward Canyon

Spring Release is here!

I hope this finds everyone on their way to Walla Walla. Spring Release Weekend is no longer right around the corner, it is here! I’m writing this blog quickly in between trips over to our Reserve House as we are busily trying to clean and get it ready for use this weekend. Can you believe that it’s finally ready!?! I know that we are all still shocked that we are going to be able to get into it. If you had seen it earlier this week you would be as well. It’s amazing what the Ketelsen Construction guys have been able to accomplish in this short amount of time since we decided to go live with it. And it’s gorgeous. Darcey and I hung our Red-Tailed Hawk painting by Todd Tealander, which was the 2004 “Artist Series” Cabernet label, earlier today and it looks great. I can’t wait to show everyone.

And don’t forget about the Winemaker’s Dinner at the Marcus Whitman tonight. Join Rick and Darcey from Woodward Canyon and Marty Clubb from L’Ecole #41 in their joint dinner. Chef Bear has been working closely with Darcey trying to get the menu just right. And the wine list looks pretty amazing as well. Hope you have already made your reservations because I'm not sure if there is any room left.

I hope to see each one of you in the tasting room this weekend! Come join us for the release of the 2006 Estate Red! It’s a great blend of 42% cabernet franc, 35% merlot, 14% cabernet sauvignon and 9% petit verdot all from the Woodward Canyon Estate Vineyard. And don’t forget to swing by the Reserve House for an additional tasting of the 2006 “Old Vines” Cabernet and the 2002 “Old Vines” Cabernet from the magnum (additional tasting fees apply). See you guys soon!

Cheers!

Shari / Woodward Canyon

Spring has finally sprung!

OMG! Spring has finally descended on the valley. It is gorgeous and sunny out and I don’t know about you all but it’s a sight that couldn’t have come soon enough! I was starting to think that Mother Nature had taken a permanent vacation and wasn’t going to be around this year. But she’s back and so is my sunshine! And it couldn’t be soon enough for the valley and the grapes. I spoke with Rick the other day and he was thinking that we’re a couple of weeks behind schedule in the vineyards. It will be interesting to see how it plays out for the vintage. Of course, a week or so of hot weather and we could be all caught up. It’s funny how weather will play such a huge part in the wines we produce.

Darcey is excited because we finally have flowers in the garden again. She’s been busy outside, pulling up weeds and trimming bushes. As I sit here and write this I see bees pollinating the bushes outside the window. Ahh … I love spring. Now I’m not the gardening-type person. Anyone who knows me at all, can vouch for the fact that I can kill anything green and alive in a matter of 5 days. And the thought of going outside and working my hands in the dirt to grow something that will essentially just die in weeks makes me turn a bit green myself. But that doesn’t mean that I do not love spring time and all the flowers that it brings. Nothing makes me happier than looking at freshly bloomed flowers, well except for the fact that I did not plant them myself.

Everyone at the winery is getting ready for Spring Release weekend. It always seems to get here quicker than we expected. But we love it because it usually signifies the start of the busy season. This year we will be releasing our 2006 Estate Red. It has already received great reviews from both Wine Spectator (91 pts) and Wine Enthusiast (95 pts). This is another great showing from our Estate Vineyard, which is Certified Sustainable, Salmon Safe, LIVE and Vinea. The vineyard has been certified sustainable by the International Organisation for Biological Control (IOBC). The IOBC was established in 1955 to promote environmentally safe methods of pest and disease control in plant protection. The vineyard is also designated as Salmon Safe. This wine is 100% from the Estate Vineyard making it a designated Salmon Safe wine. The ’06 vintage is already showing great! Here’s an excerpt from Rick on the tech sheet.
“The vintage of 2006 gave perfect physiological ripeness. As might be expected with such low yields, the resulting wine is concentrated with generous black fruit and cassis. A breadth of spices and vanilla from new oak integrate beautifully with firm merlot dominated fruit. A nose of roasted game, ripe fruit and shaved chocolate develops in the glass; the color is reddish purple. A soft, generous texture transitions to a supple, balanced mouth feel; the finish is rich, layered and long. In this wine I am again able to perceive an “expression” or “sense of place” from our Estate Vineyard and I love that! With proper cellaring, this wine should age for ten years.”

We are also excited with the possibility that our new Reserve Building will be finished in time for Spring Release. We will still be doing the majority of our tasting in our production building, but we will be offering a special tasting of our 2006 “Old Vines” Cabernet, for an additional tasting fee, in the Reserve Building. We don’t usually taste our “Old Vines” since the production had dropped so low, but we thought this might be a fun time to break it out. Swing by and taste this limited wine and get yours before it’s all gone.

If you’re in town early for Spring Release and don’t have plans yet for Thursday, April 30th, swing by The Marcus Whitman and join Rick and Marty Clubb from L’Ecole #41 at their winemaker’s dinner. It should be a great dinner with two of the pioneer wineries in the valley. The dinner looks to be fantastic and of course they’ll be pouring some great wines! Reservations are required, (509) 525-2200.

If you haven’t heard, we are running a ‘Celebrate Spring’ sale online and in the tasting room. It’s our way of saying thank you to our customers. We are offering a 15% case discount on whole and mixed cases on everything except for our “Old Vines”, large formats, etched bottles and older vintages. This is a limited time offer so don’t miss out!

Well I’m off to go and play in the sunshine a bit before it returns to hiding behind the clouds. Gosh, could this weather be any more perfect?!? The only thing that would make it better would be pizza from our wood-fire oven. I’m gonna have to see if I can’t talk Rick into firing it up and putting on one of our Woodward Canyon pizza lunches. Enjoy your day! Come say hi to me in the tasting room next time you’re in the area!

Cheers,

Shari / Woodward Canyon

Taste Washington

Hello again! I’m back in the office, rested and rejuvenated after a quick trip over to Seattle for Taste Washington. Mine was much shorter than everyone else from Woodward Canyon but I enjoyed myself immensely. It was really nice to get away from Walla Walla for however short it was. Rick and Darcey left Thursday so they could attend the Washington Wine Restaurant Awards & Tasting Friday night and Rick could attend and lead some of the seminars on Saturday. Thomas flew in Saturday morning after making stops in San Francisco and Chicago. And then first thing Monday morning he was off again, this time to New York. WOW! What a rough life he must lead. I’ve always wondered what life would be like, always on the road. I ended up catching a plane at the Walla Walla Airport at 6:50 in the morning. Let me tell you something, a 4:30 wake up call so you can make a 6:50 flight is not something I enjoy doing. Maybe I don’t envy Thomas’s job as much as I thought, after all.

Seattle was gorgeous! It was bright and sunny and unlike most of the rainy days I've spent there. It was almost difficult being indoors all afternoon. Almost, but not quite, I enjoyed myself at Taste way to much to think about it. There were more people than I could count but it was fun meeting everyone and talking about the wines. And with over 200 wineries and 60 restaurants, there was no way to get around to all of them. I made a point to taste a couple different cabs which were composed entirely of Champoux Vineyard fruit. I thought it would be interesting to see how they compared and were different from our “Old Vines” Cabernet. I love how each wine was similar in some ways but also very different in others. I guess that is what makes wine so fascinating.

Both of our labels, Nelms Road and Woodward Canyon, were included at Taste. We poured the ’07 Nelms Cabernet and ’07 Nelms Merlot and then the ’07 Washington State Chardonnay and the ’06 “Artist Series” Cabernet for Woodward Canyon. The wines were showing really well and people seemed to enjoy them. We, of course, poured out of the “Artist Series” and came close to pouring out of everything else. It was a great event with great response from the consumers.

The Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance hosted a special “Get a Taste” of Vintage Walla Walla during a 4 hour block once the Grand Tasting started. It was an appointment-only session on some of the older wines in the valley. Rick joined six other winemakers from Walla Walla, and poured our 1998 “Artist Series” Cabernet, to help showcase what Vintage Weekend is all about. I didn’t get to taste any of the wines there but we had opened a bottle of the ’98 a couple of weeks ago and the winery and it was still pouring beautifully. Lots of tobacco and earthy nuances with some black fruit on the palate, this wine still had some cellar life on it.

We poured through just about everything and headed off to Seastar in Seattle for dinner that night. If you haven’t been to this restaurant before you should definitely visit on your next trip. We had an amazing dinner. We started off the night with a couple bottles of champagne paired with fresh oysters shooters right out of the sea. Then we moved on to our white for the evening with fresh seared ahi, calamari poppers and crab cakes. Then it was a pinot noir from Burgundy which I paired with my halibut provencal and spring style asparagus. We finished off the evening with crème brulee, white chocolate coconut cream pie and passion fruit panna cotta with tropical fruit. All the desserts were amazing, though I’m gonna have to admit that the crème brulee was my favorite. Once again, I’m so glad that everyone at Woodward Canyon is as much of a foodie as I am. I am so lucky to be working at a place where us employee are treated so well and we are constantly surrounded by great food and amazing wines!

If you're in Walla Walla today come see Marlene at the Woodward Canyon table at Feast Walla Walla between one and four. We'll be pouring our '05 White Riesling, our '07 Estate Barbera and our '07 Walla Walla Valley Cabernet. If you can’t make it to Feast, swing by the tasting room and we’ll share some wines with you out here!

For those of you who will be in town the first weekend of May come visit us for Spring Release Weekend, May 1st through the 3rd. We will be pouring some of our favorites. And we might even have a trick or two up our sleeves. Hope to see you all through the tasting room at some point during the spring / summer!

Salut!

Shari / Woodward Canyon Winery